VP Sidewinder Byron's in O'Donnell are very good fuel to run if you stick with a 20-12 or 30-11 blends you won't see quite a difference and how your engine tunes and performs
I simply think odonnell fuel is the beat hands down. I've tried byron, not bad fuel but I didn't get the mileage I do with odonnel and my engine ran hot, sidewinder is a strong contender but isn't quite as good and costs more. VP is a good bashing fuel and it stores well for a long time in their tin containers but I just get better mileage, longevity, smooth idle, with odonnell. Its one of the originals and simply the best. My experience. I use odonnel speed blend not their original racing formula.
O'Donnell is discontinued they don't make it anymore it was a full synthetic feel what other fuels will have other additives and it if you're sticking around the same nitrol and oil content for all fuels with tuning they should run fairly consistent Performance wise some are a little different than others one of the best ones is Byron's 30% where 9% oil Everyone has their preference lot of people say one fuel runs hotter and yeah if you have more oil content which means a leaner to in your engine will run hotter
I have been running RC engines since 1998 and have seen just about everything as well. Byron's has been my favorite for ground and air. All engines aren't created equal. For the most part fuels with higher oil content are for when you are breaking in an engine. 16-22% lube fuels I use for break-in or some larger size engines run well on it with great longevity. 11-15% lube fuels are great performance but temps are hotter and longevity goes down. 10% and less is just all out performance and you will be rebuilding alot! More oil content longer life, less oil content more performance. I have never ran a bad fuel for what it is. Traxxas fuels are good in my opinion, not my first choice but good.
grimthenoble I have been in the game with Nitro sense 1999 and I have noticed with a high oil content it's a lot harder to tune them the performance is les and and the engines run much hotter I was running Traxxas fuel for a while because it was all I could get and it was awful it was impossible to get a lot of my engines to even run good on it I switched to a different brand of fuel like Byron's 20 % Nitro 12 % oil and wow! My engines came alive tuning was easy temperature was lower everything was better and I have run around 8 gallons in sum of my engines and never had a problem with the Traxxas fuel all I did was have the screwdriver out tuning constantly I think I was playing with the carburetors actually more than driving and with the Byron's or The Sidewinder I set them and they start and run every single time I rarely ever need to touch the carburetors sum people I know like to run a 30% Nitro 8% oil or even lower sum of these guys run as low as 6% oil and honestly that's a little bit too low for this Cowboy anywhere between 12 and 15% oil is good for me and all I run is 20% I don't bother with 25 or 30 because it cost a lot more money in my area your average gallon of 20% cost around $50 here if you want the same gallon of 30% it's closer to $65
thebug 404 I have never seen engines run hotter with more oil content. And yes performance is going to suffer from higher oil content fuels no way around it. Oil doesn't burn as good as methanol/nitro.. like I said it boils down to what you want out of the motor. Best advice is get temp gun , need to know your engine temp.. with telemetry it's so nice. Can fine tune them throughout the whole powerband
@@grimthenoble I mostly run 30/9 when I can get it a lot of people freak out about lower oil content but if you think about it 32:1 2 stroke gas is only 3.5% oil so 9% is lots! And I get 12 or more gallon out of my engines it's all about tuning as far as temperature goes I don't worry about it if it's tuned correctly as long as you're under 300° you're fine I haven't had a temp gun in years and have never had over heating problems high oil content and incorrect tuning causes overheats
About 10 years ago i was running nitro cars and trucks pretty much everysingle day and when i first started out i was using the traxxas 20% and 33% fuel because it was the easiest to get but it always seemed that no matter how rich i ran, the engines always ran hot and usually overheated and would vapor lock or loose compression and stall. After a while my hobby shop started selling the O'donnel speed blend(the orange colored fuel with clear bottle) so i switched to that fuel and after that i was able to run leaner mixtures and the engines ran much cooler with no other changes. Also with traxxas fuel the glow plugs would always come out dry/clean after running, where with the O'Donnell the plugs would come out with a nice golden brown color(assuming it must be castor varnish). Unfortunately i dont think O'Donnell is even in business anymore but it was definitely my favorite fuel for rc cars, i would definitely avoid the traxxas fuel if at all possible, eveyone i know who also ran it always had overheating issues. I had an old O.S. .12cv(red head) that i ran over 10 gallons of the O'Donnell fuel through it before the piston and sleeve were wore out lol.
The Traxxas 20% is 18% oil the 33% is 20% oil same as helicopter fuel. Absolutely garbage low quality over dyed piss. Basically stick with any other brands with no more than then 12% oil maximum. Over oiling is actually a thing that is very hard on your engine unless it was heavy duty like airplane engines that need the oil higher because of the stress of swinging the prop at or close to full throttle. You will get idiots that will tell you the oil cools the engine when in fact it doesn't. The fuel cools not the oil. Excessive oil will create more heat.
@@thebug4046 makes sense, the higher the methanol content the more "cooling effect" the fuel has, hence why running lower nitro content usually helps with cooler temps as well.
Here in fl lhs has 20% with 12% oil 4 gallons for 132$.. you've said don't exceed 12%.. is that cutting it..they call it a race blend..it's red or the off road 20% 9% oil blue at 10$ a quart...can't find the off road blue 20% in a gallon
@@damonbridgmon7199 it's all Marketing don't worry about the on road off road or color BS. the engine literally doesn't know the difference. The off road is 9% oil it's what we run in everything tunes easy runs cool and makes good power. They have to give you a million different options because people don't know what they are buying and thinking they need special fuels just because they switched running Surface. It's ridiculous! Years ago that never existed. You bought your gallon of fuel at whatever %%% you want and ran it.
Great video, thanks for the info! I'm eager to try some Byron's 20%. I've been using Top Fuel for years and I can't help but wonder if that's why it was a bit tricky to get it tuned. I ran a Fantom FR15 over 15 years ago and I never remember having tuning issues. Granted it is a completely different engine but still.
Yeah Hey I just got your reply now and yes top fuel has a way too much oil in it for modern day engines its overoild has a very small tuning window runs very lean and is no good for what you're trying to do unless you have an old AB and engine with a nickel plated sleeve that's the only time you need something around the 16% oil mark top fuel is 18% oil or higher depending on the Nitro percentage percentage absolute waste of time basically just helicopter fuel Just low performance hard tuning and no gain
Not designed for that. It's got a ton of oil in it. It's designed for 2 stroke rc cars. You would have to spend a $1000 to have enough of this fuel for one tank for an engine that size haha
3% nitro doesn't do much is you go with 30/8 it will blow the doors off the stuff you have now more oil more heat less power keep that in mind anything past 12% oil is just a downgrade a lot of people freak out about 8% oil and don't realize that still 10:1 mix lots of oil there less oil better tuning better performance cooler temperature longer engine life
Same to you buddy! But that's a bad idea as you now have 53% nitro and probably close to 30% oil. Ditch the top fuel or finish it off and then stick with something good since Byron's is discontinued. If go with something like bones brew you can order if you live in the States to your door. The 30/9 will blow the doors off what you currently are using/doing. Traxxas 33 is 20% oil just a heads up! Keep your oil 12% or less you will have its less hard on your engine tunes and performs much better.
The fuel i recommend is merlin 5 star 16%, 3 and a half years old fuel and my nitro engines still run absolutely great on it.. no idea why, just run like if it was new fuel.. i barely use my nitro engines thats why its lasted me so long
All very interesting. I have a coule of new aeroplane glow engines and it says somewhere that some castor oil in the fuel is the best way to go for running them in. If I were to buy fully synthetic glow fuel and just add a half a cup full of castor oil to a gallon, would that work?
Depending on what oil content your starting with see if you're at 17% oil add 4 oz to a gallon that will get you to about 20% oil but before you go mixing anything take some of your fuel and some of your oil in a separate container mix them and leave them sit overnight to make sure they do not separate
@@ryanthethumb Honestly spending hundreds of $ or £ to make your own fuel really isn't worth it unless you can get the ingredients really cheap just buy it from the hobby shop keeper oil content 12% or less and you will be fine
Its only £40 for the licence and i can get the ingredants cheep you struggle to get higher than 20% nitro fuel in the uk and then its shity optifuel wich is like 15% sythetic motor oil tunes like shit and smells about as bad to get 25% byron its like £30 for half us gallon be like paying nealy $100 a gallon in the us if i could make my owen be great
First I couldn't agree about the liberal retrards about you more. We also can't buy nitromethane anymore. I am lucky to still be able to get my fuel premixed. Unitil now I've been using a 25% nitro castor oil mix, but it ran out so now I've ordered a new supply from the same seller that mixes his own fuel. I went for 16% nitro for my preference is engine lifespan over power. My engines used to run great. I only have Traxxas nitro models. With the new fuel I measure much higher running temperatures, with the T-Max and Revo 3.3, I don't know if I can trust my temperature measuring gun, but it reads 230 degrees F on on the outer cooling head edge and 260 if measured at the sparkplug at a certain angle. I'm used to running more like at 200 to 220 degrees. I have richen the mix as much as I possibly could for the model to still barely (on a straight road) be able to shift into second gear. Outside temp today was 65 degrees F, sunny weather. The smell of the new fuel is much less pleasent, it smells somewhat like a sweet fruit fake flavour smell. The old one had a nice castor smell. What can I do? Should I add castor oil to the mix please help. I still have 19 litres of this shit to burn and I'm affraid it could ruin my engines. The colour of the old fuel was light yellow (like piss if you drink normally), The new fuel is orange.
Rule of thumb is keep your oil content under 12% if you can And 20 or 30% nitro perfectly safe It doesn't wear your engine out any faster if anything higher oil and lower nitro will make your engine run much hotter and leaner than It really needs to that's actually more damaging to your engine the only reason why people think 30% as badd as because they do not have any experience they were told lies about it or the improperly tuned their engine I have a group on Facebook called nitro RC enthusiast's If you would like to join you have to answer the questions and you will be accepted I am one of the admins
I have only used traxxas fuel 20% and I have never had a problem with tuning it idles fine and starts instantly after primed the only thing I dont like is it's so expensive
You will be much happier when you try Something new less money better quality bones brew 30/10 Well blow the doors off that stuff and and Longevity is better tuning is better performance is better the problem was with traxxas fuel as it has a lot of garbage in it it's recycled methanol and has a lot of dye it's fairly dirty burning in a Burns much hotter because of its high oil content it's actually quite poorly made trust me I am a fuel manufacturer and we have done lots of testing traxxas fuel is also very Corrosive compared to other fuels
I have been thinking about getting bones 20% with 12% oil but it's more my stepdad he says the more oil the better so I cant really do much about that but I have been doing research on the bones fuel and everyone says it's probably the best fuel out there and it's super cheap but for now my stepdad kinda leaning towards traxxas or backyard basher I'm younger and I have been into nitro a few years now so I'm trying to figure things out
@@supermeganuke5705 it's actually the other way around with RC engine more oil more heat leaner tune shorter engine life guys like RB Mods with 50 years in the business will tell you the same thing anything past 12% isn't doing anything for your engines put it this way 8% oil is more than 10:1 2 stroke fuel so plenty of oil there hit me up on nitro rc Enthusiast on Facebook some of the best in the business Lots of guys with over 20 and 30 years experience in the Hobby the height well content is basically true for just airplane engines that require 18 to 25% oil but the 20/12 mix will outdo the traxxas fuel bar non
@@thebug4046 oh I didnt even think about it that way come to think of it we run 32 to 1 in dirtbikes and it's like less then 4% oil and that's even quite smokey jeez. But I'm looking to get the most life out of my motor without switching to less then 20% nitro so would 12% oil be the way to go then? I actually drive a tmaxx 3.3 and it rips in the sand with bigger tires but with lower gearing so I'm wondering if switching fuel would effect the power band if it does then I'll definitely be switching to a taller gearing set up with different fuel
Yup its very dirty burning leaves a lot of carbon and varnish behind its ment to shorten your engine life just want Traxxas wants there don't want their engines to last
@@redraider7614 basically go with any other brand just keep your oil under 12% For example a 20/9 or 30/9 bend is absolutely perfect you can bash with both of them What those fuel mixtures they will run much cooler cleaner you can also to in the engine richer which puts more fuel more lubrication through the engine and yields a longer engine life As well as better tuning and better performance
Does fuel have a shelf life? I’ve got gallons of trinity monster fuel back from back in the day stored in airtight metal cans. I’ve read airplane guys do it all the time. Also I’ve got some newer traxxas fuel. Can mix that with a better fuel or best to toss?
It's not a good idea to mix different glens of fuel together as it will change the oil content and Nitro content to unknown measurements. Trinity monster fuel was last sold about 16 years ago if it's not separated or cloudy you could try to run some of it and just see how it goes. I have had fuel sit 5 years no problem
You can use klotz banal with the green label you can use blendzall two stroke castor oil you can use Maxima 927 I would avoid the stuff from the drugstore because often times as other additives in it and it will make your engine gum up very quickly
You can order those oils from Amazon or Ebay I forgot to mention that before or if you have a Motocross shop in your area just know that regular 2-stroke oil will not work it will separate any will ruin your fuel
I think boats run higher nitro like 40% and like 16% oil or something. If I have zero experience with boat since nobody in my area has them. Never worked on one
Thanks, it's been 40yrs or so my brother and I had a Scarab with a 7.5cc K+B I think outboard and I was having great memories of it. Thinking about getting back into it again. I've got no idea what catalogs I might need to get started.
@@dirankoroghlian4202 Go on Facebook and look up the Nitro rc enthusiast group There is a couple of boat guys and there I have seen recently it's a good group I'm one of the admins
I saw the side winder 25 percent nitro fuel has about 20 percent oil content. I'm not sure but it looks like it has much as the traxxas. Might want to try vp fuel.
My current two glow powered cars, a Redcat Shockwave and an HSP on road car both have the Vertex engines in them. I have run Morgan's Omega 5% and 10% in them both. They both run quite well on less than 20% nitro fuel. I have also run Morgan Cool Power MV 15% four stroke fuel in them both. I see no difference in performance from 5% to 15% nitro content fuel. Since I have a gallon of the Cool Power 15% laying around I am going to use this in these vehicles. I am not running in competitions so I do not need anything more than what I run. My local hobby shop buys only from Morgan Fuel so I have to run their products. I have run Morgan fuels for over 30 years and the fuel is good, available, and affordable. I can get a gallon of up to 15% nitro for less than $20. Lower nitro content fuels are less. I have access to racing shops here so I could get methanol and nitro, but mixing my own is still not as cost effective of buying it from the LHS. The amount of fuel I use also is another factor in not making my own. One gallon for my cars will last me over 1 month or more. I personally think that claims that 'this fuel is bad and causes issues' due to less oil, too much oil, etc. is a bunch of hooey. Until I see a true long term controlled experiment proving that one fuel causes more, faster, wear or corrosion, than another I will continue to run whatever I have available in my car and airplane engines. I think the most important factor in long engine life are the following things: 1. Knowing HOW to properly tune an engine. 2. Always properly shutting down the engine at the end of the running session. 3. Proper short and long term maintenance of the engine. These three simple things can keep nearly any engine in fine service for many years. Way too often folks just do not know how to do these three things and then issues arise and myths are created about extenuating things like fuel, engine brand, etc.that cast false information that gets propagated on forums and videos. At least that is my experience spanning 30+ years of running glow powered engines.
David McIntire most of the stuff we get here is all made by Morgan fuels as well it's kind of the only company besides one or two others that actually ship to Canada but I have noticed in the past I've tried to run Airplane Fuel because is cheaper here and it seems like the engine seem to run a little bit hotter and be more difficult to tune power-wise between 10 and 20% I haven't noticed much difference either I don't run 30% or greater because it's just too damn expensive here it's almost $60 a gallon! Canadian! Lol I've been in this hobby playing with nitro engine since 1999 and have run pretty much everything I can get my hands on fuel wise I've just noticed that with a little less oil content around the 9 to 15% oil content they seem to run a little bit better for me it could also be because of my elevation I'm not exactly sure but that's just what I've noticed everyone will have a slightly different experience I am going to try and pick up some 5% Airplane Fuel just for fun and see what happens I will post a video about that if I can find some in my area but thank you for your comment Dave as always you're awesome keep the videos coming man I really enjoy watching them too bad we weren't closer you seem like a cool dude to have a beer and talk shop with cheers man
Always Cars I'm sick of everything cars. I went into a so called hobby shop here in Vegas asked if they had any 5 or 10 percent Nitro nothing but 20 30 percent. He called the other shop nothing there either. I even called All the way to St George Utah to Hobby Town same thing.
Bro, nitro doesn't burn like diesel, it burns really well but it burns clear so it doesn't look like it's doing anything until you stick your hand in it and it starts melting your skin off lol
You're right it doesn't burn like diesel at all it doesn't burn by compression Ignition at Burns on the catalytic reaction Probly what my point was the video as people seem to think it Burns like diesel and it doesn't
Isn't the sidewinder full synthetic? At least, isn't 'sidewinder off road' 20% full synthetic? I wasn't able to find anything as far as caster oil goes.
I know I’m all over the place with commenting on your videos. I have Byron 30%/11% oil fuel. This is great for the OS .18 TZ? Also the engine ships with a OS P3 (ultra hot) turbo plug. What plug would you recommend down in south Florida (warm to hot temps, high humidity. I’m not racing but I want reliability and good performance (if possible). Engine will be used in a 2wd 1/10 stadium truck. Appreciate all the help so far!
30/11 is a great mix for the TZ just make sure to read the owners manual it will say if it requires a different plug or shim for 30% if it doesn't say anything about it i wouldn't worry about it. Maybe grab a OS hot and medium turbo plug to keep on hand just incase. I don't really know much about the TZ I have only ever done a rebuild on one never run or tuned one
@@thebug4046 you’re a freakin legend ! There is a mention of shims in the manual. They’re referring to the head gasket shims (between the cooling head glow plug holder and sleeve) or glow plug shims themselves? Also the manual does state optional plugs to use like a P4 - P8. However they’re all still have “hot” in the name. Edit. You wouldn’t add castor oil to the Byron correct?
@@lastpally yes the shim is the gasket between the head and sleeve thiner shims for less nitro thicker for more nitro. If it specifically says to. And if they are all hot then run what you got. And as far as additional castor oil? You can add a little if you want for the brake in process won't hurt anything. Make sure to use klotz castor oil green label only. And not much as you are already 11% oil make sure to probably brake it in lots of preheat and basically like the Adam drake method. They are a very tight engine and do take a long time to complete brake in! Hopefully that helps! As always thanks for watchin! KBN 🍻🍻💥💥
@@thebug4046 Thanks for all the help. Backstory if you care. I just bought the engine off eBay for $150. Guy says it’s like new and still needs a break in. However I got it and it’s somewhat dirty on the outside but no scratches on the cooling head. The carb makes be question things bc the rubber dust cover it dry rot. However I do not smell any nitro residue anywhere or see anything (varnish???). Took the cooling head off and piston/sleeve look brand new and the pinch is ungodly tight. I see nothing on the crankshaft or inside the block. The engine spins (around the BDC bc pinch lol) is smooth. I decided I’m going to take the entire carb apart and replace all the o-rings and dust cover just to be sure. I don’t want the engine to die prematurely.
@@lastpally nice!! Sounds like a good one! And definitely replace all the rubber bits clean and oil the engine as well before start up and id start with a new brake in just because you don't really know 100% about it
It says it contains 20% Castor oil the other is 80% synthetic both are mixed and added to 12% oil total oil content of the fuel so it would be 20% nitro 12% oil
More oil needs leaner tuning not helping much less oil tunes richer tuning witch will put more fuel and more lubrication through the engine as well as taking heat with it put it this way 50:1 2 stroke gas is only 2% oil so a 9 or 10% is tons of oil basher fuel has absolutely no benefits it's basically for people that don't know what they are buying
@@cheezyrider1111 20% nitro 12% oil anything more isn't helping anything besides making tuning leaner and harder and anything 16% oil or more is airplane mix
thebug 404 thanks man jw bc ima most likely go with that fuel now that byrons is no longer in business.. i have tons of byrons but dont wana use it up lol.. appreciate the great info
@@gearheadaddict7183 Hey no worries and I'm sure you live in the United States so you can always order bones bruh you can get 3 gallons for $90 Delivered right to your door
thebug 404 lol i iknow the price is decent on bones but ive used that fuel before i didnt care for it.. id rather try sidewinder.. but thanks anyways bro
@@thebug4046 ok that’s what I figured. I did buy the 20/16 blend unfortunately and wouldn’t run worth shit, and I saw this video after I bought it. Im like now I see why it’s bad lol. I’m the guy on facebook with the pro 15 with the picture of the connecting rod after I got the backplate screws out.
@@hunterdurst4571 If basically basher fuel is more or less for people that have no idea what they're buying and think they need something specific for bashing when you absolutely don't. Now the thing is when you get into the high oil content fuels above 12% your tuning window will be altered and make it tune worse and perform worse as well as run hotter. Pro 15s like a OS LC3 GLOW PLUG. Yet unlike I was mentioning Sidewinder fuel is very good but avoid the backyard basher blend and go with the race blend 30% or 20% with no more than 12% oil content i have lots of pro 15 rebuild videos to. Also keep in mind when you are switching to a different fuel or percentage you will need to retune for it it's just the way it is
@@thebug4046 ok, cool I’ll probably get a the 20/12 blend and try that I watched the video on why traxxas top fuel sucks like you said in the video, and that would explain why there is a bunch of varnish build up on my crankshaft. But I will run the Sidewinder race blend. Thanks a lot, I appreciate it I’d rather ask someone who actually knows about nitro rc’s. I seen other videos saying Traxxas Top Fuel is the best and other stuff. Till I watched your videos, you know your shit when it comes to nitro. I’d Rather take your advice 👍👍 love the videos too.
@@hunterdurst4571 no problem! And that's mostly what I run is the 20/10 or 20/12 mix is what's available here. I have run it on and off for the last 20 years. And it burns very clean tunes easy and runs great!! But like I had mentioned with your pro 15 get the os LC3 glow plug and you will love it even more!
If you're buying it from the hobby shop No it's already premix for you if you're making your own from scratch then yes you have to mix it with oil and no you can't use Regular to strobe oil it will not work at all you will ruin your fuel you have to use a specific kind just like what's in the video if you're making homebrew if you don't know what you're doing I suggest you don't do it
Yep to much freeeegggiiinnngggg oil in traxxas fuel! It's so people dont burn up thier traxxas nitros running lean and claim the warranty on motors probably something like that
If anything more oil runs leaner it takes up fuel space And increases viscosity as well as changes air fuel mix Tragic top fuel burns super lean and it has so much dye and garbage in it leaves a nice black carbon varnish all over the inside of your engine
Less oil the easier the tuning will be the reason why I gave out three different mixtures it's for different applications like if you're going to use it for an airplane or something like that but for RC cars 10/90 is good
